The CORE

Architect：AD+studio

Location：Ho Chi Minh, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam; | ;View Map

Project Year：2022

Category：Offices

The project is located in a small alley called Hao Sy Phuong in Cho Lon, built 100 years ago – when Chinese merchants set up loads of shophouses in Saigon.

Nowadays, when most of these shophouses are being disassembled and replaced since they are not classified as cultural property while not being utilized properly, the main structure of this neighborhood remains undamaged. There are only a few changes in the room layout and decorations depending on each household's needs.

In the general composition, the two-storey buildings are oriented around a shared courtyard, which helps to catch wind and light while also being a space for community interaction. Individually, each module of the two upper-lower houses shares a mutual atrium. This is the ventilation route and the solution to the lack of light created by a typical shophouse’s long and narrow floor plan. Those two sharing qualities in both general composition and module structure illustrate the solidarity characteristic of the Chinese community.

The renovation focuses on exploiting the value of those atriums –

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The front, which connects directly with the courtyard, uses the traditional architectural language to harmonize with the old neighborhood’s context. A tile roof is added, using the old tiles from the original roofs.

This second roof reduces heat radiation from above, stylizes the traditional house structure, recreates the local architecture that has been lost since the roof was replaced with new materials. The space is used for visitor / client meetings, expressing the “respect the context” basis in the studio philosophy.

The back is the design office, revolving around an internal atrium. The design emphasizes the old-new contrast in the architectural language and materials: removing decorative motifs, simplifying form and blurring the boundaries between floor planes, ceiling and walls; featuring the new-function space.

The mezzanine is a co-working space and can be used for resting out of office hours. The design leaves 50% of the area for a VOID, a solution to the ​​lack of light, reveals the original construction technique of the building. This buffer space is also a dialogue between the new and the old, a solitude space, towards meditation and concentration.

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